im interested in breeding livebearers whats should the ratio of males to female for platys, guppys and swordtails? now for my second question i currently have 4 platys in my tank 2 male and 2 female and they've been in there for a little over a month now and i was wondering why they havent bred?

iamntbatman

11-12-2008 11:56 PM

Sometimes, with the stress of a move, females can hold their fry longer than they normally would. Also, if they are very stressed, they might abort the pregnancy and become pregnant all over again.

A really good ratio would be three females to every male, although 2 females to each male also works well.

Oldman47

11-16-2008 10:49 AM

SRB, your platies have bred. If you do not see any fry in the tank you may have missed the delivery and not have enough hiding places for them to survive long. Platies will deliver fry about every 4 to 5 weeks so chances are good that it has happened by now. Adequate cover in a small tank can be quite hard to supply because the other fish in the tank seem like they are everywhere in a small tank. The fry need enough time to get under cover and hidden before they are discovered. I use a very large clump of java moss to give enough hiding places in a 10 gallon. I can get away with a smaller clump in a bigger tank because the fry will have time to find it before being eaten.
More females for each male would be a better ratio but that would only reduce some breeding pressure on the females. It will not make the delivery more or less likely to succeed.

GuppyColorMaker

11-18-2008 07:37 PM

I'd say the ratio for guppies is 1 male for every 3 females. The males could accually kill the females from stress if there is only one male.

Highland lake13

11-21-2008 09:16 PM

I would say that they have bred and the fry were eaten. If you have no plants or places were the fry can hind then it will be hard for the fry to survive. Just to make the point again i keep my guppies at a 5:1 ratio and they normally breed. However i keep my swordtails at 2:1 and they also breed. I would say you should buy more females and create more hiding spaces.

jr.masterbreeder

11-27-2008 10:43 AM

i've never had problems with 1 male to 2 female ratio for any livebearer whatsoever. I've actually had a very high turnout rate of fry and healthy adult fish afterwords. just seperate the male and female for about a week or so afterwords.